Officer Shaq busts wrong house in child porn case
Imagine yourself sitting quietly at home, minding your own business, when the police bust down your door, hold you up in your house for five hours, raid your family photos and home movies, and accuse you of child pornography. Terrifying? Now imagine that Heat center Shaquille O’Neal was one of the policemen there. Surreal?
Such was the case for a Virginia farmer and his family when the Blue Ridge Thunder and Internet Crimes Against Children task forces, in a nasty case of mistaken identity, used botched information based on a bad IP address of a child porn offender and invaded the wrong house. From the owner of the house…
“On Saturday morning, Sept. 23, 2006, many police vehicles appeared in our driveway. Men in black with flak jackets ran to and around our house. My wife was at home alone. I drove up and asked, “What’s going on?” Men ran at me, dropped into shooting position, double-handed semi-automatic pistols pointed at me, and made me put my hands against my truck. I was held at gunpoint, searched, taunted, and led into the house. I had no idea what this was about. I was scared beyond description. I feared there had been a murder and I was a suspect. My wife and I were interrogated about Internet crime. We are not avid computer users; we do not even e-mail. We knew nothing of what they were speaking. After seemingly convincing them of our computer “illiteracy,” we were questioned about our children and made to doubt their innocence. Our home was searched by a para-military search-and-seizure team. Our computers, digital camera, disposable cameras, DVD’s, and VHS tapes were seized. We were held in our home under guard for five hours. Our children came home and were also interrogated. It was awful. We were accused of horrible crimes, crimes that even the mention of would ruin our reputations.”
This calls for a new nickname for Shaq. We’ll even save him the trouble of having to come up with one himself. How about “The Big False Accuser”? Or “The Big Kiddie Porn Charges Trumper-Upper”? Or maybe even “Shaq Fuoops”.
- Shaquille Oneal’s Kiddie-Porn-Task-Force Blunder (Metafilter)
- Shaquille O’Neal Terrorizes Innocent Family in Wrong-Door SWAT Raid (TheAgitator.com)
